Fūin
by Coaxmetal
Summary: Naruto is an Uzumaki, and the son of the greatest seal master of recent history. He's not some ignorant, rude brat who pulls pranks all day long. No, he's a rude brat with a budding talent for the most complex of the ninja arts. Fūinjutsu.
1. Chapter 1

Summary : Naruto is an Uzumaki, and the son of the greatest seal master of recent history. He's not some ignorant, rude brat who pulls pranks all day long. No, he's an ignorant, rude brat with a budding talent for the most complex of the ninja arts. Fuinjutsu.

Disclaimer : Naruto is owned by Masashi Kishimoto, now on to the story!

Sarutobi Hiruzen surveyed the mound of undone paperwork covering his desk. The Sandaime Hokage had been working since his arrival in the morning and had barely made a dent in his workload. He had wanted to finish work early enough to take Naruto out to Ichiraku's Ramen, it was his first day at the Academy. Rather unfortunately for his plan, it seemed that he would be working late into the night to finish the work.

Taking a look at the picture of his successor, he half heartedly cursed the Yondaime for dying and leaving him with the position of Hokage again. After all, while many envied the position, the workload that came with it was both boring and monotonous. Hiruzen lit his pipe as he stood, pondering whether he should take a break from his work.

It was a hard choice, but at the same time it wasn't really a choice at all. When they Yondaime had died, he had left behind many responsibilities. Hiruzen had been called upon to take many of them, and he hadn't shirked his duty, coming out of retirement to serve as Hokage again.

Similarly, Hiruzen wouldn't shirk the other responsibility the Yondaime left him, taking care of his son.

/\\\\\

Hiruzen could only frown as he looked at the young blond boy sitting next to him. Naruto had barely said a word on the entire way to Ichiraku's, which was nothing like the seemingly endless stream of questions Naruto normally had for him. "Naruto-kun, what's wrong?" the elderly Hokage asked, worried, "Did something happen at the Academy?"

Naruto, normally a ball of smiles and laughter, could only look away at his question.

Sighing, he placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder, "Did they make fun of you again, Naruto-kun?" The boy had a bad history of being insulted and bullied by other kids his age. Of course, normally Naruto got angry and ended up giving them a black eye or two.

"It's just…" the boy began, "I try so hard and they… Why don't they like me, Ojii-san?" Naruto looked up at Hiruzen, and he could see the boy trying to hold back tears. "I just want friends…"

He watched Naruto wipe furiously at his eyes. Where had he gone wrong? All he had wanted was for Naruto to have something of a normal life, or at least as normal of a life as someone with a Biju trapped in their gut could have. "Well…" he started with unusual slowness, "They must be rather stupid, to not want to be friends with someone like you." Telling the boy about the Kyuubi wouldn't make the young blond in front of him feel any better, but…

"Tell me, Naruto-kun, did you want to know about the Uzumaki clan?"

Naruto had always wanted to know about his parents. But whenever he asked Hiruzen about them, the only thing he was told was that they had died when the Kyuubi attacked, and they loved him.

"Uzumaki clan?" he whispered, completely floored. "Do you mean like the Uchiha, or Hyūga?"

Hiruzen smiled sadly at Naruto, feeling guilty that he had raised the boy's hopes, "Yes, that kind of clan. The Uzumaki were actually distant relatives of the Senju, one of the founding clans of Konohagakure, and they were feared for their prowess in Fūinjutsu. Unfortunately, that fear led to them being wiped out during the Second Shinobi War."

Upon hearing that the Uzumaki were no more, Naruto slumped down in his seat. "Wiped out, huh?" he whispered, before staring at his feet, "Does that mean I'm the only one left?"

"As far as we know, yes."

Naruto said nothing for a while, before coming to a decision. His hands tightened into fists, their knuckles going white, "You said something about Fūinjutsu, Ojii-san?"

/\\\\\

Many things were said about Uzumaki Naruto by the time he was nine years old. Most of them were bad things. People said he was a troublemaker, that he was a rude brat who needed to learn some discipline. And that was all more or less true.

More importantly, although known to barely anyone, Naruto had inherited quite a bit of talent. It was said that the art of Fūinjutsu was in the blood of the Uzumaki, and his father _was_ the most talented Fūinjutsu user of recent history, so it shouldn't have come as much of a surprise.

It did though.

Perhaps it was because when you thought of Fūinjutsu you thought of wise sages, and not mischievious young boys. Perhaps it was because someone who couldn't seem to go through an entire day without sleeping in class didn't seem like the kind of person who would excel in the most complex of the ninja arts. Perhaps it was the word that loomed over the boy, unspoken, like a storm in the distance.

_Jinchuuriki_.

And so, while the image would have surprised his classmates, his neighbors, his teachers and just about everyone else in between, Hiruzen was not surprised when he saw Naruto hunched over an orange notebook, working quietly with a calligraphy set. The boy was sitting at his kitchen table, a look of concentration spread across his face.

It should've been cute. The small blond was wearing his usual black shorts and shirt, the shirt with the Uzumaki clan spiral in bright red across the front, with his face scrunched up while he squinted at his notebook. It would've been cute, if it hadn't been so eerily reminiscent of another blond boy that Hiruzen had once known.

He cleared his throat, and couldn't help chuckling because of the way Naruto's head shot up to stare at the old man like a deer caught in the spotlights. "Hello there Naruto-kun, sorry for interrupting you." he greeted, giving a nod towards the calligraphy pen suspended in Naruto's hand.

"Ah, Ojii-san, don't worry about it! I was just about to finish up anyways." Naruto said as he got up. "What're you here for? If it was a prank, I swear you can't prove I did it."

"No, it's nothing like that Naruto-kun," Hiruzen denied, "I've actually come to see if you'd like to go on a trip with me. I'll be leaving next week, and I thought you might like to come along."

To say that Naruto was excited would be an understatement. "A trip with you, Ojii-san? Of course!" The fact he would end up missing some very boring school to spend time with his Ojii-san didn't influence his decision at all. "Where are we going?"

"It's just a routine diplomatic meeting, but I find Takigakure to be quite beautiful."

/\\\\\

He could hardly stop grinning for even a minute. Ojii-san had been right, Takigakure was really cool. Naruto wasn't sure if it was the giant tree the village was built around, or if it was the awesome waterfall that you could see practically anywhere inside the village.

Or maybe it was the fact that when people looked at him, they _looked_ at him. Back in Konoha, if someone caught sight of them, they'd mostly just try to pretend like he wasn't there. And it was alongside that thought that an idea hit him. After all, the people of Takigakure didn't know him at all. He'd need to remedy that.

So clutching the ryō Ojii-san had given him, something about seeing the sights, he rushed off to a nearby dango stand. They were almost too sweet for his tastes, he preferred something more salty like ramen, and if he ate too many he always got a stomach ache afterwards, but he was in the mood for something sweet right now. So after purchasing a handful of sticks he ran off towards the waterfall.

Or he would have, had he not ran straight into someone.

The first thing he noticed was that he hadn't dropped any of his dango, luckily. The second thing he noticed, was that she had mint green hair. She also had bright orange eyes. He could respect that, because orange was the best color. The next thing he noticed was also about her eyes.

They seemed familiar for some reason.

But before he could do anything more than realize that, the girl was already apologizing, "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to, please, I just wasn't paying attention and -"

"Wait a minute," he interrupted, and was confused when she flinched subtly, "that was all my fault. I was really excited about seeing a new village and wasn't watching where I was going."

And there it was again. Those eyes of hers were so strangely familiar, but he couldn't place why. "Ah, well..." she begun, only to trail off, "My name is Fū!"

"Heh, I'm Naruto!" he introduced himself, thrusting his dango filled hand towards her, "Want one?"

She grinned widely, "Sure!"

/\\\\\

He knew why Fū's eyes seemed so familiar to him. It wasn't because of their color, or their shape or anything like that. It was because he recognized the look in them. As they walked down the street, she had agreed to visit the waterfall with him, he noticed the glares.

He was surprised, because he didn't know why they would be glaring at him like that when they hadn't before, but then he realized they hadn't been meant for him. They had been meant for Fū.

Fū's eyes were so familiar because what they showed was like a mirror to his own eyes.

He had tried to keep quiet about it. As much as he just wanted to get angry and loud about it, he was sure it wouldn't help Fū. So instead, he grabbed her hand and started walking faster.

"C'mon Fū-chan," He started, trying to put a grin over the tight frown that had found it's way onto his face, "they're idiots. Let's get out of here."

He didn't turn around to see her face. If he had, he would've seen a look of complete surprise painted across it, that was soon replaced with a small, almost disbelieving, grin. He didn't need to look at her to feel the way her hand tightened on his, like she never wanted to let go. And he wouldn't let go, because, and of this he was absolutely certain, they were friends.

They hadn't known each other for very long, and they knew barely nothing about each other, but they were without a doubt friends. He didn't think that was very normal, although he hadn't any other friendships to compare this one with.

Naruto and Fū were friends because neither of them had any. To them, that was good enough for now.

/\\\\\

He spun the dange stick around in his hand. It hadn't taken long for him to answer Fū's question as to why he acted as he did. Rather, it was taking a long time for Fū to say something, anything really.

It was starting to make him really nervous, like he had messed something up. He didn't like messing up, if there was anything he had learned from studying Fūinjutsu, it was that failing sucked. Failing was frustrating, and it was disappointing. Yes, in studying Fūinjutsu, he had learned that he hated failing.

So he hoped he had not. "Ne, Fū-chan, what's your favorite color?"

She seemed startled at his question. "Well..." she bit her lip as she thought, "I dunno. Never really thought too much about it before. Maybe blue?"

"Blue is pretty cool, but my favorite is orange!"

"My favorite food is Karaage. Especially if its octopus!" And so it went on, the two of them just talking and swapping stories and things about themselves.

It was... nice. Naruto couldn't think of any other way to describe how it felt to just talk with someone, like he and Fū were doing. It was then he decided that, no matter what came, he and Fū would stay friends. When he said as much aloud, she agreed.

/\\\\\

When the Sandaime saw Naruto again, he was glad. It wasn't hard to tell that Naruto had made a friend. Naruto seemed happier, lighter almost, like his burdens had been eased, then he had before he came to Takigakure. The fact that he kept looking at a slip of paper covered with an address was also quite telling.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer : Naruto is owned by Masashi Kishimoto, now on to the story!

Those who taught at the Academy of Konohagakure were well known for their professionalism and skill. Konoha had produced a startlingly large amount of skilled, and relatively sane, ninja over the years. This fact is mostly attributed to the Academy's teachings, as such those few who taught there were honored. To be chosen out of the many ninja of Konohagakure to help the future generation was one of the highest honors a chunin could receive. As such they did everything they possibly could to ensure that the students they taught would become fearsome ninjas in the future.

On the other hand, Naruto was rightfully known as a terrible student.

He never seemed to be paying attention in class, often preferring to mess around in a notebook. It also didn't help that he often reacted to a harsh lecture with a week of pranks. When Toshiko pissed Naruto off, Toshiko went missing for a week. Toshiko still hasn't talked about what happened to him.

His title of "King of Pranks" was not one given in jest.

Naruto didn't seem capable of doing things in halves. An "Uzumaki Prank" often involved a startling variety of household implements, anywhere from one to twenty firecrackers, and some rather subtle Fūinjutsu.

The younger kids still whispered in awe about that coffee maker.

And so on graduation day, the entirety of the school's teachers were assembled to view the testing results. It was really just professional curiosity, they just wanted to know which students ended up graduating. There certainly wasn't anything else to it. It wasn't like they wanted to know if they had to deal with a certain blond hellion for another year.

"Hah, it was easy!" the blond brat they definitely hadn't come to watch yelled to his classmates as he showed off his new hitai-ate.

Maybe they could use the coffee machine without fear now.

Probably not.

/\\\\\

Naruto couldn't quite decide which was worse. His teammates, or his teacher.

So far he was pretty sure it was his teacher. Sasuke might've been a stuck up Uchiha and all, but he was at least as skilled as he was stuck up. Fireballs were nothing to sneeze at.

On the other hand, Sakura was pretty bad. It didn't really matter if she had the highest test scores of the past decade. She was the co-president of the Uchiha Sasuke fan club, and even the fact she graduated as top Kunoichi didn't change that. She also hadn't shown any kind of initiative in learning skills outside of the Academy.

On top of that, she had been placed on a team with her obsession, Sasuke. What idiot thought that was a good idea? Seriously, were they trying to sabotage her ninja career or something?  
Their sensei, Kakashi, had managed to be a three whole goddamn hours late. How do you even manage to be that late?

"Now then, introduce yourselves! Your likes, dislikes, dreams, that kind of thing."

He was sitting down next to Sasuke and Sakura, both of which were also scowling up at Kakashi. "Shouldn't you introduce yourself first?" he questioned.

"Me? Well..." The jonin started slowly, shrugging lackadaisically, "I'm Hatake Kakashi. I don't feel like telling you my likes and dislikes, and dreams for the future... I have lots of hobbies."

His smart ass introduction seemed to cause Sakura to approach some kind of nuclear meltdown. She had all of the telltale signs, a slowly reddening face, a twitching eyebrow and that _'I will maim you'_ glare. "All he told us... was his name?" she mumbled, steam rising from her ears.

The silver haired jonin nodded, satisfied with his trolling, "Your turn next, Blondie."

Scowling at the nickname, he got to his feet. "My name is Uzumaki Naruto. I like ramen, 'specially if someone else is paying, Fū-chan and Fūinjutsu." Oh he was definitely sending Fū a letter about this. How the hell was this man allowed to be a Jonin? "I dislike annoying silver haired senseis, and my hobby is developing my Fūinjutsu. My dream? Is to become the greatest master of Fūinjutsu, and bring back the name Uzumaki!"

He was pretty sure Sasuke snickered at his heroic pose.

/\\\\\

Kakashi was late, again. The man had them all get up early, and hadn't come on time.

Naruto supposed he should be angrier, but the saying did go "fooled me once shame on you, fooled me twice shame on me". At least this time he'd brought something to work on while waiting for the jonin. Still didn't make being hours late acceptable.

He hadn't really had much of an outfit change since his trip to Takigakure, mostly because he hadn't really seen a reason to. However, in celebration he decided to add a forearm guard to his simple black shirt, black pants ensemble. The arm guard was really a prototype of his most recent project. Applying it to the iron forearm guard was fairly simple, if time consuming, and he wrapped it in black cloth afterwards. Partially to mask the Fūin and partially to prevent the shiny metal from giving away his position.

So far the prototype's testing had gone pretty well, if a little less effective than he'd hoped it to be. It wouldn't be hard to tune up its power before Kakashi came, and giving the man a nasty surprise would be rather nice. He needed to show a certain silver haired troll why you didn't mess with Uzumaki Naruto.

"Naruto-san, what's that?" Sakura asked, leaning to get a better look at the intricate design. She had been occupied with observing Sasuke, but seemed to bored of 'Sasuke-watching'.

"Well," he started, opening his notebook, "it's a seal I've been developing. This is really only a prototype, but this is what the seal looks like so far." Sakura frowned as she got a better look at the notebook.

"This is really complex!" she said, surprised, "Much more than those storage seals we looked at in class, even." Which weren't too complicated, actually. Storage seals were one of the simplest things you could do in Fūinjutsu, as they required only a firm grasp of the basics.

He had been pretty disappointed with how little the class had covered Fūinjutsu. They had covered it for hardly even a day, getting nothing further than a few of the basic ideas behind sealing and showing them a storage seal.

"What does it do?" Sasuke questioned, causing Sakura to jump in surprise as he appeared behind her.

"It's simple, if inefficient." Naruto started, positioning the forearm guard to be easier to see. "It makes a chakra construct in a rough fist shape, before launching it forwards."

He smirked in pride as the two looked at the seal with a new respect. "Why do you say it's inefficient?" Sakura asked.

"I've had to build it off the very basics." Naruto said, frowning. "There really isn't much about Fūinjutsu that I could get my hands on, most often it's passed down master to apprentice." Not to mention that few ninja actually practiced Fūinjutsu, most deeming the esoteric art largely useless.

"One of the advanced steps of the **Katon: G****ōkakyū** is shaping a your chakra. I didn't know seals could do that, though."

"Gah, that's because no one pays attention to what seals can do!" he exclaimed, "Fūinjutsu is the use of seals to manipulate chakra to change the world around you, so you're lucky. After all, I'll be on your team."

Sasuke stared for a moment, before doing that infuriating Uchiha smirk, "You've got it wrong, you're lucky to be on my team."

"What'd you say?"

"Ah, calm down, what if Kakashi-sensei comes?"

/\\\\\

In the end, they had passed.

He had been pretty glad about that, even if Kakashi was still an annoying troll. Fū found the guy hilarious though, probably because she didn't have to deal with him. The D-Rank missions he wasn't happy about. There was no way you could call catching a cat or weeding gardens a mission. Those don't even need a ninja, literally anyone with a pair of arms and legs could do them, so why did they have to do them?

The weird thing was that when he asked Hokage-jiji about getting a C-rank Sakura freaked out at him. What did she mean, "not treating the Hokage with respect", she had been complaining about D-ranks too! At least they ended up getting a C-rank. Hokage-jiji must've remembered Fū too, because they got sent on a mission in Oka no Kuni, which was close to Takigakure. It was unfortunate that he would be spending his time there escorting some doctor to Mashike, though.

At least the doctor was cool, his name was Hakken, and the guy seemed to know just about everything about the plants around him. "That one? That's a ginger plant, you can use it to help with stomach problems, and they can be used to help inflamed wounds." Hakken explained, "It's pretty common in herbal teas."

"Neh, Hakken-san, why'd you come to Konoha for your mission?" Naruto questioned, "Wouldn't it be easier to get someone from Takigakure?"

"Well, the medicine Mashike needs isn't available in Oka no Kuni. I actually traveled to the capital of Hi no Kuni to get this medicine," Hakken tapped the wooden medicine box he was carrying, "without an escort. But I had heard some rumors about bandit activity, so I decided to hire an escort."

Sasuke seemed intrigued by that. "Bandit activity this close to Takigakure? Why haven't they taken care of it, then?" The Uchiha hadn't said much during the mission, but had been listening intently.

"Well, while ninja villages take care of bandits and a many other criminals nearby, they don't do very much border patrolling outside of contested areas. It isn't wartime, and Taki and Konoha have been allied since the Shodaime Hokage, so the border is lightly patrolled. They probably just haven't heard of any bandit activity yet."

"You seem pretty sure those bandits are around here," Sakura wondered, "but you said you'd only heard rumors."

"There aren't many other reasons for entire caravans to disappear like they have been," Hakken smiled wistfully down at Sakura. "Luckily the path to Mashike is pretty far away from where they were supposed to be, I'm just trying to stay safe."

/\\\\\

"Ah, that was really good," Naruto rubbed his stomach, before getting up.

By the time they got to Mashike, it was the night of the fourth day. If they had been by themselves they could have made it in a day and a half, maybe a day if they went without breaks, but they had to keep a pace that Hakken could walk at. Hakken ended up offering they stay for dinner, and they accepted.

He was pretty glad, because there was no way that their trail rations could've been as filling as the full meal that was rolled out for Hakken's return. It was getting kind of dark outside, but some sightseeing definitely wouldn't hurt. After all, he didn't get to see villages outside of Konohagakure very often, maybe he could find something cool in a shop?

"Help me..." came a faint voice from his right. Spinning around Naruto found a boy, maybe a year older than him, barely managing to stand.

A Taki hitai-ate was tied around his neck, and his black jacket was covered in blood. Rushing towards him as he stumbled Naruto caught him. "What happened to you?" Naruto asked as the ninja leaned on him.

"The bandits were-" the Taki ninja's explanation was interrupted by his own groan of pain when Naruto jostled him. "The bandits were supported by some ninja. I didn't recognize them, but I don't think they're missing nin, and my team needs help!"

"Don't worry about it, they'll be fine," Naruto reassured him, "Sakura!"

"Keep it down Na- What happened to him?" She shrieked as she saw his wounds.

"Here, take him to Hakken, and go tell Kakashi-sensei, I'll go make sure his team are ok."

"Naruto, wait!" she called, fumbling with the injured genin, as Naruto sprinted off by himself, "The idiot!"

/\\\\\

Naruto leaped from tree to tree as he rushed forwards. He knew it was a bad idea to go into a combat area while flying blind, but he'd have to. He didn't know what shape the rest of that Taki team was in, but they might be in serious trouble.

Either way, all he needed to do was follow the trail of blood left behind, and hold the attackers off until Kakashi got there. It would be simple.

Naruto barely managed to stop and turn as someone crashed into him. He could hear someone yelling in the background as he smashed into the ground. Which was painful enough, without it being followed by someone else landing forcefully on top of him. Someone surprisingly familiar to him.

"What the hell broke my fall?" Fū wondered aloud, as she gotback up.

"Heh, nice to see you too Fū-chan!" Naruto joked, "The timing could have been a little better though."

Fū spun around, surprised "Naruto? Why are you here?" she asked, before realizing that it wasn't the time for it. Just in time too, as her attacker leaped down from his tree.

He was maybe a head taller than Naruto was, and pretty was thick of build. The ninja was wearing rather standard shinobi attire, and the only thing that stood out to Naruto was the mans large nose and hitai-ate, which had a musical note emblazoned on it. He couldn't name any village that used a musical note off the top of his head.

"Oh look, the brats know each other. How cute," the man sneered. "Too bad it won't help you."

Fū rushed towards him, fist cocked.

/\\\\\

"Get away from me!" cried Yatsureta Hideki, his own blood covering him.

Standing over him was a tall man, his face blank of expression as he pointed his katana towards the fallen Taki genin. "It is a shame you have to die, but you got in the way." He brought his sword down onto Hideki's neck.

And was forced to leap backwards as a handful of shuriken flew from Kakashi's hand. "Another?" the swordsman questioned impassively, "You would have been spared, had you not shown your face."

Taking a look at the Taki genin, Kakashi pulled his headband up to reveal a spinning red eye, his Sharingan. Better to not take chances, he needed to win this fast, before the genin could bleed out. The swordsman's headband caught his attention. A musical note, the symbol of the recently formed Oto village?

He'd have the time to figure out why Oto was here later, but if these weren't missing ninja he needed to make sure his own genin were okay.

Kakashi jumped back, dodging the Oto ninja's attempt to cleave him in two. Iit was obvious from the way the Oto ninja kept at Kakashi with a flurry of strikes that he was skilled in Kenjutsu. Unfortunately for the swordsman, Kakashi was not an elite jonin for no reason. His Sharingan was not merely for show, either.

Kakashi's Sharingan, being fully matured, allowed him to not only copy techniques, which was what gave him the title 'Copy Ninja Kakashi', it also gave him near precognizance of even the smallest movement the Oto ninja made. It was simple, then, after dodging another string of attacks to feint like he was dodging to the right.

Instead, he dodged to left. His hands blurred as he flashed through seals. It was unfortunate that he would be unable to question the Oto ninja, but he didn't have time to play around. "**Raikiri** (Lightning Cutter)," his lightning covered hand plunged through the swordsman's chest.

Picking up Hideki, he slid his hitai-ate back down. His Sharingan was probably overkill, the Oto ninja only around chunin.

It was either the Sharingan, or the fuck-off lightning hand.

/\\\\\

Naruto stumbled back, gasping. That ninja could kick really hard. Like, almost crack-a-rib-hard.

"Hah," the man laughed, "How'd you like that one?"

The man's laughter was interrupted Fū roundhouse kicked him into a tree.

Naruto flashed her a thumbs-up-and-grin combo, part accolade and part reassurance.

"You fucking brats," he roared, "How dare you? It looks like I'll have to teach you some manners!" The ninja seemed to shift before teleporting, moving too fast for Naruto to even see.

Naruto did feel the man's kick - like a train to the face. Staggering back, he resisted the urge to clutch his face, and instead blocked the man's follow up punch.

The forearm guard was pretty forgettable. Naruto had meant for it to be, which was why he had taken to wrapping black strips of cloth around it. Any observer wouldn't think anything was strange about it, except for the fact that the blond was only wearing one on his left arm. So when he blocked with his right, the other ninja was surprised. Something like that was a mistake not even rookies would make.

And so, with great gratification, Naruto threw his left arm towards the other man's oversized nose. It didn't quite connect, Naruto's smaller body just didn't have the reach the older man's did.

It was just too bad he wasn't limited to his body's reach.

"**Y****ūrei Kōgeki **(Ghost Strike)!"

Chakra was usually invisible, which was why dojutsu like the Sharingan or Byakugan were normally needed to see it. It usually became visible when it was molded into an element. It was also visible when the chakra was highly concentrated. Which was why the long nosed ninja was surprised when the Fūin inscribed on Naruto's previously inconspicuous forearm guard began to glow from the chakra running through it.

The ninja was even more surprised when a spectral fist of chakra formed around Naruto's. Said fist was promptly accelerated into the older man's face, breaking his nose and knocking him out.

As Naruto rubbed his head - those kicks fucking hurt, dammit! - Fū looked on in shock. She didn't expect Naruto's Fūin to be that powerful, even if she knew about it. He had griped about it's inefficiency, but that had been strong enough to knock a man out in one blow.

Eh, he must have improved it recently. After all he was only a rookie genin, so he shouldn't have enough chakra to supercharge a technique. It wasn't like he was a Jinchuuriki or anything, that'd be silly.

/\\\\\

"Those two will be fine," Kakashi told Fū, motioning to the house holding her two teammates. "They should be fine within the week."

Fū didn't really care, they really weren't much of a team - the Bijuu in her gut put some distance between her and everyone else in the village. On the other hand, her situation in Taki could only have worsened had she come back with her entire team dead.

"Thanks for helping, Hatake-san."

"It was no problem," the jonin said as his visible eye curved into something like a smile, "We will talk about this tomorrow, though." The eye-smile didn't seem to make the man less scary. Fū had seen the man's arm before he'd washed it, covered almost up the elbow in blood. She'd rather not piss him off. The silver haired ninja was also Naruto's sensei, and while he described the man as lazy beyond belief, she didn't want to get Naruto in trouble.

Besides, if they both stayed in Mashike for the night, she could catch up with Naruto. In person, instead of through letters like they had been. Naruto had definitely grown since they first met.

The thought spread a smile across her face.

AN: Bluagasdf. Wordpad isn't a very useful writing tool, and this chapter clocks in at 3289 words. If you find something wrong/shitty drop a review to let me know, and I'll try to fix it.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer : Naruto is owned by Masashi Kishimoto, now on to the story!

Naruto groaned on the way back to his room.

Couldn't Kakashi have left off on the lecture until his head started to feel a little better? The whole 'just got kicked in the face really, really hard' should have been enough of a punishment, he didn't need to get verbally dismembered on top of it. Well, he probably deserved it, but it could have waited until he made sure he didn't have a concussion or anything.

After all, his preferred method of discovering head injuries wasn't failing to wake up the next morning. That would have been a really shitty way to die - and on his first mission outside of Konoha too. On top of his feeling like shit, it seemed like everyone else had already gone to bed, which sucked. He had wanted to catch up with Fū, but after what her team had been through, and the whole middle of the night thing, she was probably exhausted. She also didn't have to stay up to receive an extra long lecture from Kakashi. She was probably enjoying her sleep right now.

Naruto made sure to take extra care that he moved, and suffered, in silence. Those who woke Sakura up before she completed her "beauty sleep" were soon enlightened on why that was a bad idea. Said enlightenment came in a very loud and terrifying way. The lack of lighting made the normally easy task a little harder. It still wasn't that hard - navigating dark, unfamiliar areas was practically part of the job description. He stripped off his shirt as soon as he got in his room - it was somewhere in between milk gone bad and an animal that shit itself before it died - before he dropped onto his bed.

Now, Naruto never got really tired. At least, not in the way he saw other people did. When others were exhausted, when they were pushed beyond their limits, they barely had the energy to do anything. He noticed they would often fall asleep before they even reached their home, like they couldn't take another step. This was not true with Naruto.

Perhaps it had to do with the seal on his stomach - it was suspicious, but Hokage-jiji had never responded to his subtle hints about the subject - but even if it didn't, his exhaustion was different. No matter how hard he pushed himself, he had never felt like it was impossible to continue, that next step was always within reach. Rather, when Naruto was exhausted - like if he was just kicked around and lectured - it was more like metal exhaustion. He just didn't react at the speed he normally did.

So when his tired body dropped right on top of someone, he didn't react. In fact he continued to not react, right up until Fū blearily opened her eyes and said, "Wha- Naruto?"

That's when he looked down, and noticed he was on top of Fū, and that his hands had dropped on top her breasts.

/\\\\\

"Yeah, uh, sorry about that Fū-chan," Naruto apologized nervously. If that had been anyone else, they would have kicked his ass. He was just glad that Fū was so understanding. He was also glad that his friend had developed such a nice bod - no! Now was really not the time for those kind of thoughts.

"Uh, it's okay, I probably shouldn't have fallen asleep in your bed..." Fū mumbled as she blushed and refused to make eye contact.

"... Why were you in my bed?"

"Well... I was waiting to talk to you, but I guess I dozed off." Fū had something of a bad habit, she wasn't very patient and tended to fall asleep when she got bored. She'd written to him about it before, mostly because it prefaced a few things she wrote to him about.

The two genin walked through the empty streets of Mashike as they talked. It seemed that the earlier excitement had left the civilians generally tired and wary. Naruto couldn't really blame them, being surprised by enemy ninja wasn't a pleasant experience. Especially when it involved being knocked out of the air.

"So what happened to your team?" Naruto asked.

"Well, we were on a mission to confirm if there were bandits in the area," Fū started, "We found them, but we got ambushed by those Oto ninja before we could send a report back. Maybe they were working together?"

The idea wasn't a pleasant one. From what Kakashi had told him, Otogakure was a recently formed ninja village that had been giving asylum to quite a few notorious missing nin. Outside of that, not much else was known about the village. It was so secretive their village leader wasn't even known. There would be no easy way to figure out Otogakure's reasoning behind harassing Taki.

"Er, how's Taki been?" Naruto prompted, trying to get away from such a serious topic.

Fū laughed at the obvious segue, "Same as usual, they leave me alone and I leave them alone. I've just started learning a new technique..." She cringed slightly as she mentioned her new technique. It was rather unique to her - being the jinchuuriki of the seven tailed biju brought a certain set of benefits. It also brought quite a few stigmas, so telling Naruto about the gigantic monster sealed within her wasn't really on her to-do list.

Naruto noticed her expression, and decided it wasn't something she really wanted to talk about, "Really? Maybe you can show me later, once you've got it down." Fū was grateful that he didn't push the subject.

"Your sensei doesn't really seem that bad, you sure you weren't exaggerating?"

"You should have seen him when he-"

The two friends continued to talk through the rest of the night. A few hours of sleep wasn't much of a price to pay to be able to catch up with each other in person.

/\\\\\

**The Hokage Tower**

The Sandaime leaned forward in his chair, "Otogakure you said?" The room was practically empty as only Kakashi, and the one hidden ANBU guard, were with the Hokage. The genin of Team 7 had been quickly ushered out, with the promise they would be paid for a B-rank because of their encounter with enemy ninja.

Both the Sandaime and Kakashi were in a rare mood. Had any of Kakashi's students seen him they would have sworn someone was impersonating him, and poorly. Kakashi was never respectful, and he never seemed to put away that orange book of his. Most of all, Kakashi was never serious. His students had never seen Kakashi anything other than his "default" relaxed.

"Yes, the ninja were both from Oto. The one I interrogated said their goal was to do as much damage to Takigakure as fast as possible. He couldn't tell me any reasons."

"If I had to guess, they don't want any teams from Taki showing up at the Chunin exams." the Sandaime's eyes drifted towards the ANBU, "Get a message to Jiraiya, tell him to find anything out about Oto."

Kakashi pressed onto different matters, "Should we inform Naruto of his Jinchuuriki status? We know Suna is sending theirs to the Chunin Exams." He frowned at the idea of the apparently psychotic boy coming to Konoha, it was rather poor form.

The Hokage took a breath of his pipe, "No. When Jiraiya comes back during the Chunin Exams, he'll tell Naruto." Although, the boy could already know, he had dropped a few references to the seal. On the other hand, Naruto probably would have confronted the Sandaime directly about it if he truly knew about the titanic fox demon buried behind his navel.

/\\\\\

"I'm bored."

Naruto laid upon his bed as he lamented his fate. They had left Mashike once Kakashi finished his talk with Fū. They left the surviving Oto ninja with Fū. Once they got back to Konoha they had rushed straight to the Hokage's office to tell him what happened, but all of them were dismissed almost immediately, except Kakashi.

On top of that, they weren't going to have a team meeting for a few days, so no missions or training.

So as glad as he was to be back home, there wasn't all that much to do. He didn't really have any friends in Konoha he could go hang out with. On top fo that he'd recently hit a roadblock in the development of Yūrei Kōgeki, and it wasn't looking like he'd be able to get past it any time soon. It was damn hard experimenting with the higher levels of sealing theory. Mostly because said experimentation tended to end in an explosion or three.

Might as well go out to eat, not anything better to do. He slipped on his shoes and left for Ichiraku's.

As he walked, he pondered his Fūin's problem. It certainly wasn't one that was easily remedied. Without any other sealing practitioners around, his progress had ground to almost nothing. The basics he had learned from the Sandaime and what few manuals he got his hands on could only carry him so far. Because of the way his Yūrei Kōgeki was set up, specifically in the way it sustained and created the chakra construct, he couldn't really improve it further. Sure he could reduce a few unnecessary parts but he was largely done with that.

He had originally played around with a few ideas, most of them centered around altering the chakra construct, the 'fist', into something else, but eventually abandoned the idea. The reason the 'fist' shape was so easy to make because the seal was basically just copying his forearm and using it as a model for the construct. Anything else would require significant knowledge about chakra construct behavior that he didn't have, and couldn't get. It wasn't like people just left books about high level chakra theory lying around, there probably weren't even books about that. He sure as hell didn't have any chakra seeing dojutsu either, so it wasn't like he could go find it out for himself.

Experimenting blindly was out too, because even one mistake could lead to crippling himself for life. Explosions tended to be quite fun to look at, but it turned out they weren't too much fun to be inside of. Especially if they were caused by high level chakra manipulation. Perhaps he could diverge into nature manipulation, instead of just shape manipulation?

He was snapped out of his thoughts when he nearly walked into a young girl pacing back and forth. "Where is..." the brown haired girl mumbled as she searched the signs of nearby stores. She looked equal parts frustrated and lost. He could sympathize, what with his sealing project coming to a standstill, which might have been why he decided to help out. Either way, he approached her

"Are you looking for something?"

She spun around, startled by Naruto's sudden question, "Wha-who?"

"Didn't you know it's rude to ask for someone's name without giving your own first," Naruto joked, "I'm Uzumaki Naruto."

"Uh, I'm Hyuga Hanabi."

"Hyuga?" Now that she looked in his direction he could tell she definitely had those rather unique eyes, "Are you related to Hinata?"

She nodded her head, "I'm her younger sister."

Naruto smiled down at her. Hinata was a rather nice girl, if a bit timid. She also wasn't part of the Sasuke fanclub, and was instead very dedicated to becoming a kunoichi. Letting her little sister get lost would leave a pretty bad taste in his mouth. "Well, do you need any help finding something?"

Hanabi shuffled her feet nervously, "Well, I wanted to get my sister something... She just got her first C-rank. Do you know where to buy cinnamon rolls?"

Cinnamon rolls? Yeah, Yaku's place sold those, it was pretty close too. "Sure, there's a bakery about a block that way," Naruto said as he pointed down the road. She seemed pretty nervous though, and he had been complaining about being bored, so...

"Here, I'll show you where it is."

"Thanks!"

He couldn't help but think that it was kind of weird Hanabi didn't know where to buy pastries. Maybe her parents the kind that sheltered their children? It would explain why Hinata was so shy. Although Hanabi didn't really seem shy, at least not to the level that Hinata was. On the subject of former classmates, maybe he should meet up with them? It wasn't like they had been especially close, but they were comrades. After all, they had spent years together as they learned how to be ninja.

It had been a short walk to the bakery, and when they arrived he held the door open for Hanabi, "Here we are." Upon entering, Hanabi walked straight to the counter and ordered a half dozen cinnamon rolls. The amount seemed large for just Hinata, and she hadn't been someone to overeat from what little he could remember.

Maybe Hanabi had a soft spot for cinnamon rolls too?

Hanabi stared at the box of pastries like a hunter eying its prey after they left. "The way you're looking at those rolls, I'm not sure Hinata will be getting any," Naruto teased. "If you're really so hungry I could take you out to lunch," he offered.

Hanabi seemed surprised at that, "Really?"

"Sure, I just got paid for a mission so it won't be much of a problem," it turned out that B-ranks paid a hell of a lot better than D-ranks did, something rather obvious in hindsight. While he did have to pay bills - and without the stipend he used to receive as an orphaned child who lived by himself, any shinobi was considered a legal adult in the eyes of Konoha - the hit to his wallet was well worth the smile Hanabi sported.

Being called "Naruto-oniisan" was pretty nice too.

/\\\\\

"Are you Neji-san?" Naruto asked the pale eyed boy. In the background a bun haired girl yelled at two rather eccentric males, both of whom wore tight green bodysuits. As a side note, skin-tight bodysuits were frankly disturbing on men, especially sweaty men when mid hug. From how Hanabi had described her cousin this wasn't exactly how he had pictured meeting the older Hyuga.

"Yes. Why are you here?" On the other hand, Neji seemed to be just as cold as Hanabi had described him to be. It was somewhat bemusing, though, that Neji held an air of nobility about him that neither of his cousins did. The Hyuga were practically royalty in Konoha, being the only large bloodline clan left now that the Uchiha and Senju were largely defunct. Neji also seemed to have a huge stick up his ass, and neither of his cousins had that. It was hard to even imagine Hinata being mean she was so cripplingly shy.

When Naruto bought Hanabi lunch - Ichiraku's tasted as good as ever, and Hanabi had definitely enjoyed it - they ended up talking. Their conversation spanned a rather eclectic set of topics, but one of those happened to be training. He was rather surprised when Hanabi turned out to be better than her elder sister Hinata. She had brought up the fact that her Byakugan was naturally stronger, which allowed her to see chakra more clearly. Hanabi claimed that was the reason for her greater skill in the Juken.

He had been rather excited - and somewhat ashamed that he had to rely on a girl who wasn't even a genin yet - when she brought up the fact that the Byakugan could see chakra, as it could be a solution to his earlier seal's earlier problem. When asked if she could help him develop his technique, she had seemed rather hesitant and suggested he see her genius cousin. Perhaps she didn't think she was skilled enough to aid him? In the end, he didn't press the matter, and went to see her elder cousin.

"I was wondering if you could help me with a seal."

The air around the Hyuga seemed to take a rather sharp drop towards freezing as soon as Naruto said "seal". The rather abrupt temperature change was accompanied with what could only be described as Neji trying to signal for a nuclear strike using only his rather intense glare. It was more than mildly terrifying - although Naruto would never admit it aloud. "Why come to me for help with a _seal_," the Hyuga managed to grate out, and he placed a startlingly large amount of venom on the word seal.

Naruto was rather offended that someone - a ninja, especially - would dislike the noble art of Fūinjutsu. It was probably what cemented his image of Hyuga Neji as a complete asshole. "Well when I asked for help with a chakra construct your cousin recommended you and your _genius_."

While the Hyuga's glare lessened at his explanation, he didn't seem like he was very excited about the idea, "Enlighten me as to why I should help you? It's not like -"

"Yosh! Did someone say genius?" A green blur exploded into the scene, interrupting Neji before he could deliver his presumably scathing remark. Neji sighed, apparently used to the interrupter - who just so happened to have the largest eyebrows Naruto had ever seen.

"Lee," the Hyuga began as he tried to stave off an imminent aneurysm, "how many times must I tell you not to interrupt me..."

Lee, his massive eyebrows shooting up as he realized his rudeness, lifted a fist to the sky and started yelling, "You are right Neji-san! To repent, I shall run five hundred laps around Konoha! If I cannot do that, I will climb the Hokage mountain a seven hundred times, with only one hand! And if I cannot do that..." His shouts became completely unintelligible as he ran off into the distance.

Gai - having seen the man, Naruto was _glad_ he had Kakashi, and not some freak in green - had grabbed Neji by his shoulders and shouted about the "Flames of Youth!" before he dragged the Hyuga off.

Naruto looked on in pity, "Never again."

/\\\\\

"Naruto-san, is that a new notebook?" Sakura asked as she stared at his notebook. The old notebook was a bright orange, and its cover had become rather distressingly warn recently. It also contained most of Naruto's recent Fūinjutsu work, including his Yūrei Kōgeki.

"Yes." Naruto had recently changed to a different notebook, mostly because his old one was getting rather full. His paper consumption had recently skyrocketed as he tried to find ways to streamline his Fūin. Naruto was ready, and had the funds, to part ways with his current prototype and upgrade to his most recent design. At this point the only thing holding him back from doing so was his last minute double checking. He even had the forearm guard purchased.

"Are you making another?" Sasuke had noticed the extra piece of armor laid next to the blond.

"Yeah," Naruto said as he went through his work one last time, "I'm just making sure I don't have any mistakes. Having to buy another would suck."

It really would suck. Chakra didn't really play well with most of the materials normal armors were made of. Steels and ceramics tended to fail rather spectacularly when much chakra was run through them. A few minor seals could be used, but anything else would destroy the material in a few uses. Iron tended to work better, but it was much heavier and wasn't nearly as hard as steel was.

Naruto had to order the forearm guards custom made. They were made of an alloy referred to as "Chakra Metal" which, while still heavier than steel, gave a similar amount of protection and could handle much higher levels of chakra. Chakra Metal was rather expensive, even when compared to the specially designed ceramic armors favored by many ninja. His previous one had been a gift from the Hokage, but by saving up some Ryō from his recent missions Naruto had purchased another.

"Have you thought about my suggestion?" Sasuke asked, genuinely interested. From the way Naruto described Fūinjutsu he had assumed it could be made, but Naruto might have been exaggerating.

"With a few tweaks I could make it work," Naruto leaned back, his lip bit in thought. "A gust of wind wouldn't be that hard, and it would definitely fit." Naruto had played with a few ideas before shelving it entirely. There was no point in going further than theory work if Sasuke wasn't really interested.

Sakura's attention swapped between her two teammates, "What are you two talking about?"

"That would work," Sasuke said, "Any problems?"

Sakura fumed slightly at being ignored, before she tried again, "What are-"

"The air wouldn't have much force behind it, it's too spread out. Outside the combination it'd be pretty useless," Naruto interrupted Sakura. That seemed to be the last straw for her.

"Explain!" Sakura shouted, "What are you going on about?"

"I asked Naruto if he could use his Fūin with my Gōkakyū," Sasuke told her, more amused than annoyed. He could see why Kakashi enjoyed it so much. "That sounds fine," Sasuke gave Naruto a nod.

Naruto raised a fist towards the Uchiha, "Project huge ass fireball is as good as a success, am I right?"

The Uchiha smirked, and turned his back.

"Hey, don't leave me hanging!"

/\\\\\

Kakashi had dropped one a hell of a bomb on them. Who the hell nominates rookies for the Chunin Exams? Like one in five entrants died by the end of it. Naruto supposed it didn't really matter, he'd just have to get stronger, which was already his plan. The upcoming Chunin Exams did mean he'd have to find a way to work more on his seals.

Eh, he didn't really need the sleep anyway.

Along with the decision on how to spend his nights, Naruto decided it was time to refresh his stock of sealing supplies. On the way to his preferred store - read: cheapest store - he was interrupted.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" a boy wearing a black suit, with a sunagakure symbol sewn into the top, yelled. On top of the full body suit, which was already pretty out of place, the boy was wearing dark purple face paint. He probably thought it made him look badass, but it made him look rather silly. He had a red haired girl grabbed by her collar, "How dare you push me around!"

The girl, who wore a Kusagakure hitai-ate, didn't seem pleased with her treatment, "Get your hands off me!" She yelled as she pushed him away.

Naruto thought he should probably stop them. It wouldn't reassure the civilians much if foreign ninjas tried to murder each other in the middle of the streets. As the Sunagakure ninja lowered his hand to a pouch, Naruto stepped forward, "Cut that out."

The kunoichi looked at him, surprised, but the black clad boy merely swapped his attention towards Naruto. "And who do you think you're messing with, brat?" he snarled.

Naruto's fists clenched as he tried not to sock the other boy in the face, "I don't know about you, but I'm Uzumaki Naruto. You can walk away and we'll forget this happened, or I can beat the shit out of you and get you sent back to Suna." Naruto drew his left arm up - and the forearm guard attached to it - as he delivered his ultimatum.

The black clad shinobi flinched and backed off, "Fine. My name's Kankuro, remember it and hope you're not in the Chunin Exams." Kankuro sent one last glare Naruto's way before he left.

"What a dick..."

The red haired girl snorted at Naruto's mumbled comment, before she asked him a question, "You said _Uzumaki_ Naruto, right?"

He turned to her, a wide grin on his face, "Yeah, you heard of them before?"

"Er, something like that," the girl said, "I'm Karin. Thanks for helping."

"Don't worry about it Karin-chan. Besides, I couldn't just let someone harass a pretty girl, now could I?" Naruto flashed her a heroic pose - thumbs up and everything - before he waved goodbye. As entertaining as that diversion was, he still needed another inkstone or two.

"Another Uzumaki huh?" Karin whispered, as she watched him leave "He doesn't look the part but..." She could hope.

These Chunin Exam would be interesting.

AN: 4091 words here. Drop a review if you feel like it. I should probably get around to installing something other than Wordpad. Having to use something else for spell checking is a pain in the ass.


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